July 14, 192 1] 



NATURE 



61 



Each section is followed by "problems," some 

 of which, it must be admitted, are absurdly "aca- 

 demic." Thus, to give the weight of a crucible 

 as 26-59625 grams is what the Germans call 

 "Decimalspielerei," and is apt to convey a per- 

 fectly illusory impression of the degree of accu- 

 racy attained in an ordinary weighing. The 

 problems should be not so much arithmetical exer- 

 cises as examples of the principles involved, and 

 to this end it is unnecessary and unwise to inflict 

 upon the student an unwieldy row of decimals 

 which, especially in the hurry of written exam- 

 inations, may land him into arithmetical blunders 

 and so defeat what should be the real object of 

 the examiner. It is also desirable that foreign 

 proper names should be correctly spelled. The 

 colleague of Dulong in the formulation of the law 

 connecting atomic weight with specific heat is 

 not usually styled Pettit (p. 141), nor, although 

 there are variants in the name, is Ingen Houss 

 (p. 183) commonly so written. Oxygen was dis- 

 covered by Priestley on August i, 1774, and not 

 in 1775, as stated on p. 249 and elsewhere. As 

 2i matter of fact, Priestley had prepared it from 

 nitre in 1771 without actually recognising it. 

 Scheele, as is now known, was an independent 

 discoverer, and had probably obtained the gas 

 some time prior to 1774; but his first announce- 

 ment of its existence was made in his treatise on 

 Air and Fire, published in 1777. 



Every conscientious teacher, properly equipped 

 with knowledge and experience, and gifted with 

 sympathy and enthusiasm, evolves his own 

 methods of instruction sooner or later ; but he can 

 always learn from other teachers, even if at times 

 it is only the negative gain of "how not to do 

 it." From Mr. Lewis his gain will be positive. 

 He will find his- system rational and well- 

 ordered, his methods of exposition clear and 

 direct, and his experimental illustrations carefully 

 ■chosen and strictly to the point. 



A Jungle Book. 



The Diary of a Sportsman-Naturalist in India. 

 By E. P. Stebbing. Pp. xvi 4- 298. (London : 

 John Lane; New York: John Lane Co., 1920.) 

 215. net. 



A GREAT part of Mr. Stebbing's book is 

 devoted to the sport and natural history of 

 the big-game jungles of India, and no reader will 

 escape their fascination. They are so primitive, 

 so wild, so full of the unexpected, so tragic in 

 their nidden vestiges of remote civilisation, and 

 withal so rich in possibilities of present-day 

 pleasure — to the sportsman-naturalist especially. 

 NO. 2698, VOL. 107] 



" The log fire burning and crackling merrily out- 

 side, the subdued buzz of talk from the servants' 

 lines, the whinnying of the picketed ponies or the 

 shrill voices of the syces raised in execration when 

 a biting or kicking match commences, the dull 

 rumbling of the elephants engaged on their fodder, 

 resembling distant thunder ; the great columns of 

 trees forming a background to the camp, on to 

 which the camp-fires cast fitful shadows, whilst 

 overhead the picture is closed in by the blue-black 

 vault picked out with innumerable jewels and 

 spangled with diamond dust. How pleasant it all 

 is. . . ." 



Mr. Stebbing tells of his first bull bison {Bos 

 gaurus), his first sambhar stag, his first tiger, his 

 first leopard, his first bear, his first boar, not to 

 speak of creatures like pangolins and porcupines 

 which the naturalist enjoyed and the sportsman 

 spared. It is a sanguinary book, but it is very 

 well written, and the tale is adorned with vivid 

 thumbnail sketches by the author and with ex- 

 cellent photographs by Mrs. Stebbing, Mrs. E. M. 

 Sparkes, and Sir John Prescott Hewett. 



Mr. Stebbing's general impressions of the 

 jungle are very interesting. One is the warning 

 which the jungle folk pass on when danger is 

 approaching. " This warning, though intended 

 for the friends of the utterer, is understood by the 

 whole community, even though among themselves 

 they may be respectively the oppressor and 

 oppressed." From the moment the tiger or 

 leopard is descried, 



"every animal in the jungle is put at 

 once on its guard by the performance of 

 the birds and monkeys. The deer know perfectly 

 well what it portends, and remain on the alert till 

 their enemy has left" the neighbourhood. In fact, 

 it is quite common for a tiger or leopard, once 

 he has been discovered in a jungle, to be fairly 

 mobbed out of it; for he knows that once all the 

 jungle animals have been informed of his presence 

 he has a poor chance of getting even a plump 

 young doe to make his meal off." 



Another impression is the great difficulty ex- 

 perienced in "picking up" the animals — from 

 elephant to partridge — in their natural surround- 

 ings. 



'* Even a large animal like the tiger can 

 move along in his surroundings in an almost 

 invisible manner. His outline becomes merged in 

 the general colour of the grass or scrub jungle, 

 but there is nothing definite to pick up, and when 

 he is motionless he is almost invisible, if not quite, 

 to the untrained eye. ... It is usually the eyes of 

 the animal which are first perceived if it is facing 

 the observer. . . . Whilst, therefore, in a new 

 environment and with an untrained eye, the new- 

 comer finds some difficulty in picking out any of 

 the animals in his neighbourhood from their sur- 

 roundings, the reverse is the case with the jungle 



